And this year's team will have Prince, Pondexter (out injured right now) and Ed Davis to add to the current team. Bayless gives them basically what Mayo gave them. Pondexter gives them some of what Battier gave them. Davis and Arthur improve the big rotation. We'll see about the comraderie, but I think Prince and Davis will fit in well from what I've read about them.

Whoever wrote that isn't particularly familiar with Toronto's situation and mid-tier playoff team is giving that Raptors core group of Lowry/DeRozan/Ross/Gay/Jonas/Amir way too much credit. Two of those guys are rookies who have proven nothing (Ross, Jonas), two of those guys are terribly inefficient wing players (DeRozan, Gay), and one of those guys is a backup 4 (Amir). In what world does that team even make the playoffs, let alone qualify as "mid-tier" which is essentially Brooklyn/Indiana/Atlanta territory? All Colangelo did was just push the rebuild the Raptors desperately need back at least two years to hype up his bullshit product again.

Toronto will be significantly worse, traded away a draft pick, and added a lot of money to the team’s payroll.

Memphis will be slightly improved and will save money over both the short-term and long-term.

Detroit will be significantly improved and will save money over the long-term.

With this trade, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has once again shown that he does not know how to evaluate basketball players. The Raptors are now paying $34.4 million to four players — Gay, Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan, and Linas Kleiza — who have produced a grand total of -0.6 wins so far this season. They will be paying these four players a grand total of $117.5 million over the next three years, and if we go by career averages, they will receive a paltry 9.6 wins over that time.

Colangelo is the person responsible for acquiring and deciding to pay each of these players. Bargnani –the worst starter in modern NBA history — and DeRozan have never been productive players, yet Colangelo signed them to huge contract extensions. Kleiza was a gamble that didn’t pay off. Memphis signed Gay to a max contract that he didn’t deserve, and by acquiring him through trade, Colangelo tacitly agrees with the amount of money Gay makes.

As long as Bryan Colangelo remains the GM, the Raptors will have a tough time making the playoffs. Under his leadership the team has wasted the performances of excellent players and squandered the affections of a loyal fanbase. This trade reverses a long-awaited promising upward trend in the team’s on-court fortunes. Canadian basketball fans can do nothing but hope that the Raptors’ new ownership realizes that Colangelo is the problem and replaces him when his contract expires at the end of the season.